batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg-l7311-l7386
---
record_id: batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg-l7311-l7386
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
passage_locator:
label: 'The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 2 of 2) / CONTENTS;
lines 7311-7386'
start: '7311'
end: '7386'
translation: 'The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 2 of 2)'
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: ''
summary: Frazer lists comparative examples in which a child’s or person’s life is
believed to be sympathetically connected with a tree, plant, object, animal, stone,
column, or knife, so that the condition or destruction of the linked item predicts
or causes corresponding fortune, illness, or death.
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The passage states that in folk-tales a person’s life may be bound up with
a plant, so that withering of the plant and death of the person are linked.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: Among the M’Bengas, two trees are planted for two children born on the same
day, and people dance around the trees.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: The M’Bengas believe each child’s life is bound up with one of the trees,
and that if the tree dies or is thrown down the child will soon die.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: Some Papuans connect a newborn child’s life with a tree by driving a pebble
into the tree’s bark; if the tree is cut down, the child will die.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:5
text: Maori practice described here buries the navel-string in a sacred place and
plants a sapling over it; the tree’s flourishing or withering is read as a sign
for the child’s future.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:6
text: In Southern Celebes, a coconut is planted at a child’s birth and watered with
water used to wash the after-birth and navel-string; the tree is called the child’s
contemporary.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:7
text: In Bali, a coconut palm planted at a child’s birth is believed to grow equally
with the child and is called the child’s life-plant.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:8
text: Dyaks of Borneo plant a palm tree on certain occasions and treat its flourishing
or withering as an index of good or bad fortune.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:9
text: The passage reports European customs of planting a tree at a child’s birth
and tending it with care, including Aargau apple trees for boys and pear trees
for girls.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- ev:9
- id: obs:10
text: In Mecklenburg, the after-birth is thrown at the foot of a young tree, after
which the child is believed to grow with the tree.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:11
text: In England, persons may be passed through a cleft tree as a cure for rupture,
after which a sympathetic connection is believed to exist between person and tree.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: obs:12
text: The cited English example says Thomas Chillingworth preserved the tree through
which he had been passed, because his life was believed to depend on the tree’s
life.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: obs:13
text: Lord Byron is said to have planted a young oak and to have thought that he
would flourish as the tree flourished.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: obs:14
text: The passage extends the stated sympathetic bond from trees and plants to animals
and things.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- id: obs:15
text: Romanus Lecapenus was told that Simeon’s life was bound up with a column in
Constantinople; after the column capital was removed, Simeon was reported to have
died at the same hour.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: obs:16
text: Among the Karens of Burma, the knife used to cut the navel-string is preserved
for the child, because the child’s life is said to be connected with it.
category: object
evidence_refs:
- ev:16
- id: obs:17
text: The Malays are described as believing that a soul or mysterious relation can
connect a person with another person or animal so that one fate depends on the
other.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:17
- id: obs:18
text: In the Banks Islands, some people connect themselves with an animal, stone,
or other object called tamaniu, and believe the person’s life is bound up with
it.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: life-linked child
description: A child whose life, fortune, or growth is believed to be connected
with a planted tree, palm, coconut, sapling, after-birth deposit, navel-string,
or knife.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:16
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: life-linked tree or plant
description: A planted tree, palm, coconut, sapling, oak, apple-tree, pear-tree,
or other plant whose condition is treated as linked to a person’s life or fortune.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:13
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: parents or caretakers
description: People who plant, tend, preserve, or interpret the life-linked plant
or object for a child or patient.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:8
- ev:11
- ev:12
- ev:16
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Thomas Chillingworth
description: An English man said to have been passed through a cleft tree as an
infant and later to preserve that tree carefully.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Lord Byron
description: A person said to have planted a young oak and associated his own flourishing
with the tree’s flourishing.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Emperor Romanus Lecapenus
description: The emperor who, after receiving an astrologer’s information, removed
the capital of a column linked to Simeon’s life.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Simeon prince of Bulgaria
description: A ruler whose life was said to be bound up with a column in Constantinople
and who was reported to die after the column capital was removed.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: tamaniu
description: In the Banks Islands example, an animal, stone, or object imagined
to have a close natural relation to a person; its condition is tied to the person’s
life.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: life-linked animal or thing
description: An animal, object, stone, column, knife, lizard, or snake whose condition
or destruction is connected with a person’s fate or life.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- ev:15
- ev:16
- ev:17
- ev:18
roles:
- id: role:1
label: person whose life is sympathetically linked
assigned_to:
- fig:1
- fig:4
- fig:5
- fig:7
basis: The passage repeatedly describes a child or person whose life, growth, fortune,
illness, or death depends on a plant, object, animal, or column.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:5
- ev:12
- ev:13
- ev:15
- id: role:2
label: external life-index or life-vessel
assigned_to:
- fig:2
- fig:8
- fig:9
basis: Trees, plants, animals, stones, a column, a knife, and tamaniu are described
as objects whose flourishing, loss, destruction, or death is linked to a person’s
fate.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:7
- ev:14
- ev:15
- ev:16
- ev:18
- id: role:3
label: ritual planter, preserver, or interpreter
assigned_to:
- fig:3
- fig:4
basis: Parents, caretakers, and the named English example plant, tend, preserve,
or interpret the linked tree or object.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:8
- ev:12
- ev:16
- id: role:4
label: agent acting on life-linked object
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: Romanus removes the column capital after being told Simeon’s life is bound
up with it.
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: tree as life-plant
literal_form: Tree, sapling, palm, coconut, oak, apple-tree, or pear-tree planted
or preserved in relation to a person’s life.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs:
- tree
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:12
- ev:13
- id: sym:2
label: navel-string and after-birth
literal_form: Navel-string and after-birth buried, washed, or associated with a
planted tree or preserved knife.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:10
- ev:16
- id: sym:3
label: water used in birth-related planting
literal_form: Water in which the after-birth and navel-string have been washed,
used to water a newly planted coconut.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:4
label: pebble in tree bark
literal_form: A pebble driven into the bark of a tree to unite a newborn child’s
life with the tree.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: sym:5
label: cleft tree
literal_form: A tree through whose cleft a person is passed as a cure for rupture,
producing a sympathetic connection.
associated_figures:
- fig:2
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs:
- tree
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- ev:12
- id: sym:6
label: column with removable capital
literal_form: A column in Constantinople whose capital is said to be linked to Simeon’s
life.
associated_figures:
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: sym:7
label: navel-string knife
literal_form: The knife used to cut a child’s navel-string, preserved because the
child’s life is connected with it.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:16
- id: sym:8
label: snake as possible tamaniu
literal_form: A snake, among possible animals or objects, that may be a person’s
tamaniu in the Banks Islands account.
associated_figures:
- fig:8
- fig:9
taxonomy_refs:
- serpent
evidence_refs:
- ev:18
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Planting a tree at birth
summary: At or after a birth, a tree or plant is planted, sometimes in connection
with the navel-string or after-birth, and its growth is treated as connected with
the child’s life or fortune.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
- id: scene:2
label: Preserving or interpreting the life-linked tree
summary: A tree associated with a person is tended, preserved, or read as a sign
of the person’s flourishing, illness, rupture, or death.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- ev:12
- ev:13
- id: scene:3
label: Extending the bond to objects, animals, and stones
summary: The same sympathetic life bond is described as applying beyond plants to
animals, stones, a knife, a column, and the Banks Islands tamaniu.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:6
- fig:7
- fig:8
- fig:9
symbol_refs:
- sym:6
- sym:7
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- ev:15
- ev:16
- ev:17
- ev:18
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: life bound to a tree or plant
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Many examples describe a child’s or person’s life, growth, health, or fortune
as linked to a planted or preserved tree or plant.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
- ev:12
- ev:13
confidence: high
cautions: The available taxonomy has a tree symbol, but no precise motif-family
reference for an external life-tree; therefore no motif taxonomy ref is assigned.
- id: motif:2
label: external life in object, animal, or stone
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The passage states that a person’s life may be united by physical sympathy
with an animal or thing, and gives examples involving a column, knife, animal,
stone, snake, lizard, and tamaniu.
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- ev:15
- ev:16
- ev:17
- ev:18
confidence: high
cautions: The passage presents comparative reports rather than a single mythic narrative;
motif label is descriptive.
- id: motif:3
label: birth substance transferred to life-plant
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Several practices connect a newborn’s navel-string or after-birth with a
tree or coconut, by burial, washing water, or a preserved cutting knife.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:10
- ev:16
confidence: medium
cautions: The examples differ in procedure and object; they are grouped only by
the passage’s shared birth-related linkage.
- id: motif:4
label: sympathetic omen of flourishing or withering
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The flourishing, withering, loss, or destruction of a linked tree or object
is used to infer or produce prosperity, misfortune, sickness, or death.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:12
- ev:18
confidence: high
cautions: Some examples describe omen-like interpretation, while others describe
direct causal dependence.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage itself compares multiple cultural examples as instances of a
shared pattern in which a person’s life is sympathetically bound to a plant, object,
animal, or thing.
claim_level: same_function
target: comparative pattern of sympathetic life-bond or external life-index
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:14
- ev:18
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: The claim is limited to Frazer’s comparative framing within this passage
and does not establish historical contact or common inheritance.
- id: claim:2
claim: The passage treats tree-planting at birth in Africa, Oceania, Southeast Asia,
and Europe as functionally comparable because the child’s welfare is read through
the tree’s condition.
claim_level: same_function
target: birth tree or life-plant customs across cited regions
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:5
- ev:6
- ev:8
- ev:9
- ev:10
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The examples vary in ritual details, species, and stated effect; the
passage does not prove direct transmission among them.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: 7311-7314
quote_or_summary: In folk-tales, a person’s life may be bound up with a plant, with
the plant’s withering and the person’s death linked.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: 7314-7320
quote_or_summary: Among the M’Bengas near the Gaboon, two trees are planted for
two children born on the same day; each child’s life is believed bound to one
tree, and the tree’s death or fall predicts the child’s death.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: 7320-7321
quote_or_summary: The Cameroons are mentioned as another place where a person’s
life is believed to be sympathetically bound to a tree.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: 7321-7325
quote_or_summary: Some Papuans drive a pebble into a tree’s bark to unite a newborn
child’s life with the tree; if the tree is cut down, the child will die.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: 7325-7331
quote_or_summary: Maoris bury the navel-string in a sacred place and plant a sapling
over it; the tree is a sign of life for the child, with flourishing or withering
read as good or bad omen.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: 7331-7335
quote_or_summary: In Southern Celebes, a coconut is planted at a child’s birth and
watered with water used to wash the after-birth and navel-string; the tree is
called the child’s contemporary.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: 7335-7338
quote_or_summary: In Bali, a coconut palm planted at a child’s birth is believed
to grow equally with the child and is called the child’s life-plant.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: 7338-7342
quote_or_summary: Dyaks of Borneo plant a palm tree on certain occasions and regard
its flourishing or withering as an index of good fortune or misfortune.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:9
type: summary
locator: 7342-7348
quote_or_summary: Families in Russia, Germany, England, France, and Italy are said
to plant a tree at a child’s birth; in Aargau an apple-tree is planted for a boy
and a pear-tree for a girl, and the child is thought to flourish or dwindle with
the tree.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:10
type: summary
locator: 7348-7350
quote_or_summary: In Mecklenburg, after-birth is thrown at the foot of a young tree,
and the child is believed to grow with the tree.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:11
type: summary
locator: 7350-7354
quote_or_summary: In England, persons are passed through a cleft tree as a cure
for rupture, and a sympathetic connection is thereafter believed to exist between
them and the tree.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:12
type: summary
locator: 7354-7362
quote_or_summary: Thomas Chillingworth, passed through such a tree as an infant,
preserves it carefully because the patient’s life is believed to depend on the
tree’s life and cutting it down would cause rupture to return and mortification
to follow.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:13
type: summary
locator: 7362-7365
quote_or_summary: Lord Byron is said to have planted a young oak at Newstead and
believed that he would flourish as it flourished.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:14
type: summary
locator: 7366-7370
quote_or_summary: The passage says the sympathetic life bond is not limited to plants
but may exist between a person and an animal or thing, so that destruction of
the animal or thing is followed by the person’s death.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:15
type: summary
locator: 7370-7377
quote_or_summary: Romanus Lecapenus is told Simeon’s life is bound to a column in
Constantinople; the emperor removes the column capital and later learns Simeon
died at the same hour.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:16
type: summary
locator: 7377-7381
quote_or_summary: Among Karens of Burma, the knife used to cut the navel-string
is preserved for the child because the child’s life is thought connected with
it, and loss or destruction threatens long life.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:17
type: summary
locator: 7381-7384
quote_or_summary: Malays are described as believing a soul or mysterious relation
can connect a person with another person or animal, making one fate dependent
on the other.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:18
type: summary
locator: 7384-7386
quote_or_summary: In the Banks Islands, some people connect themselves with an object,
animal such as a lizard or snake, or stone called tamaniu; the person’s life is
bound up with it, and if it dies, breaks, or is lost, the person will die.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-2-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: high
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The passage is explicitly comparative and repeatedly states the life-link
pattern. Taxonomy assignment is conservative because the available motif families
do not include a precise external-soul or sympathetic-life-bond category.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
All observations and motifs are based only on the supplied passage and metadata. Motif taxonomy refs are left empty where the available taxonomy does not precisely match the passage.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:comparative-golden-bough-volume-2-frazer-gutenberg__l7311-l7386
passage_sha256=04366ae518f82502d6ba5cc30a7cf90eaec01c64534d1367b9f71e97ece8030a